


Dear Captain

by RGmolpus



Series: Last Messages [3]
Category: Vorkosigan Saga - Lois McMaster Bujold
Genre: Gen, long walk
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-03
Updated: 2019-03-03
Packaged: 2019-11-08 20:26:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 467
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17988002
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RGmolpus/pseuds/RGmolpus
Summary: The Story is closed.





	Dear Captain

The fingers on her shoulders were warm and familiar.

"Time for a walk, Dear Captain?"; his smile was full and warm.

"Oh - Of course, My dearest".

He was in his old floral shirt, given him long ago by Rulf and the other officers of the Vorcraft. She was in her Betan Captains uniform; worn and comfortable after all the years of exploring the galaxy.

He offered her the crook of his elbow; it was automatically easy to slide her arm into it.

"The garden looks wonderful, My Captain; Those begonias are looking good." In the distance she could hear someone digging in a flowerbed, but he must have been around the side of the villa; she couldn't see him. 

"Yes, Yeoman Nilesa has been busy these last few weeks; he's been setting lots of starters out for this year."

In the distance, at the edge of the garden, she could see a familiar tall figure; stiff and tall in his house uniform; she knew his face, thin and sharp.

HE fell in beside them, as they walked the perimeter of the garden; his eyes darting into the underbrush and around the corners; so she and her Count wouldn't feel endangered.

The walk wasn't far; soon they were in a small clearing; a glade on the mountainside. She'd visited this spot regularly, to clear a patch of soil, planting flowers around the rectangular plot. Some perennials had caught, and were outlining the place where a hard-dug mound had once risen. The military issue marker was clearly evident; with a name and dates deeply etched into the metal.

He was there; leading against the large memorial marker; next to his name; His eyes were bright; Smiling; He gave her a very Betan shipboard salute. "Thanks, Captain, for this; it's meant a lot to me and - lots of others."

She stopped a sniffle, then gave in with a full sneeze; tears squeezed out to sprinkle on the grass. 

She escaped from his arm, to give the never-forgotten man from that disastrous day a deep, hard, unmilitary hug; "I came every year, to say hello, and plant..." 

He touched her lips; "Lets go for a walk, back to base camp; Captain."

"... and this time no Oatmeal with blue cheese dressing on the way" was all He had to say.

The walk to her old camp was easy; the light bright....

=======

At the villa, Daniel Nilesa heard the doors to the bedroom open; a slight squeak that the fitters never seemed to fix touched his ears.

He levered himself up from the flowerbed he'd been placing sets in; he looked at the set of patio doors; He came to his fullest, best attention, and saluted - 

He touched a button on his wristcom - "Medical and Security to the Bedroom, It's time; Nilesa out"


End file.
